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Welcome
Hello, I'm an undergraduate student of philosophy from Porto Alegre, Brazil. Though close to an absolute beginner, I've recently become interested in the philosophy of perception and my graduation dissertation focuses on a applied ethics debate, namely that of the demands of morality. Is it a moral obligation for affluent individuals and nations to provide aid to human beings living in miserable conditions? Peter Singer ("Famine, Affluence, and Morality") and Peter Unger (Living High and Letting Die) think so. I am prone to agree. Also, does distance count as a morally relevant factor? Is there a difference between saving a child who dies in front of you and another dying 10,000 kilometers away? Singer and Unger don't think so. Frances Kamm does. Again I am prone to agree with Singer and Unger. The ending paragraph of Caspar Hare's "Rationality and the distant needy" sums up what I currently think about it and what I am working to defend:
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In sum: most of us, when we think about the needy, have a background preference that they suffer less in situations where whether they suffer more or less has absolutely no material impact upon us. Furthermore most of us are willing to dive into a pond, no matter how smelly, to save a drowning toddler. And that’s lucky, because we would be ogres otherwise. But if you have these preferences and do not give (and give…) to Oxfam then you are irrational. You may avoid being irrational easily enough, by becoming an ogre. You may avoid becoming an ogre easily enough, by remaining irrational. But to avoid both you must pass through the proverbial eye of a needle. |
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Apart from philosophy, I'm interested in music, science, cinema, literature, and cooking. I'm also somewhat interested in political theory, where I think I stand as a libertarian. My utopia would be a minarchist society respectful of the non-aggression principle and economically developed along the lines of free market. I am also for global justice.
Main contributions
Right now I'm more a reader than a contributor, though in the past I have contributed to a variety of articles, particularly to the following: History of science in the Middle Ages, Anomalous monism, Biological naturalism, 
Dualism (philosophy of mind), Eliminative materialism, 
Philosophy of mind. Some articles I created or worked on with my previous username include Meister Eckhart, Hans Reichenbach, Berlin Circle (philosophy), Kurt Grelling, Chaim Perelman, Actual infinity, Stationary set, Mathematical biology etc.
Resources
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